Sunday, November 17, 2013

Simple linen kirtle

 
Made of light linen fabric, handsewn with linen and silk thread. Worn over a short linen corset-bra laced at the sides. Front opening and forearms are laced with round four-strand braids of linen thread. The body panels are rectangles with slight shaping at the sides. Seams at the center back and front Back are straight. Gores are attached at each side (front, back, sides).



Saturday, November 9, 2013

Spinning fails

I finally got to doing some spinning. I ordered supplies - spindle, whorl and cheap, industrially-made woolen top - from shop.pallia.
I did manage to dress a broomstick...
 But my further efforts proved quite a struggle. I even broke my poor whorl :(.
As to the spinning itself... Not good, not good.


wtf is this
Cathelina di Alessandri has a wonderful research page on medieval (15th century) spinning, using bottom-whorled spindles. When done properly, the technique looks very graceful and pretty - there are several good illustrational youtube videos (most importantly Cathelina's). The spindle is never dropped as a regular drop spindle - it is twisted in fingers instead, and could be suspended on the yarn for a little while while it rotates, but otherwise is kept in hand.

Aaat least in theory... Watch me fail hilariously.